June 25, 2012

Beneath Contempt

The House is expected to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress due to his refusal to turn over some documents related to the “Fast and Furious” gunwalking operation. With an approval rating of 17 percent, Congress itself is held in contempt by the American people.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Republicans are gunning for Holder because he stopped states from playing fast and footloose with the Voting Rights Act:

It’s really important to note how this is connected with some of their other decisions. It is no accident. It is no coincidence that the Attorney General of the United States is the person responsible for making sure that voter suppression does not happen in our country, that issues that relate to the civil liberties of the American people are upheld.

These very same people holding in contempt are part of a nationwide scheme to suppress a vote. They are closely aligned with those who are suffocating the system, special interests, secret money, and they are poisoning the debate. They are poisoning the debate with that money. And so what does the average citizen say? They throw up their hands and they say, a pox on both your houses, and that is a victory for the special interest.

On ABC’s “This Week,” the contemptible George Will said Holder “made himself obnoxious to Republicans.”

The GOP’s bill of indictment against Holder includes his refusal to prosecute the New Black Panthers for alleged “voter intimidation” during the 2008 election.

The incident was investigated and dismissed as no more than two knuckleheads acting stupid. Still, the video of this made-for-Fox-News nothingburger lives on in the imagination of Republicans who use it to justify election law changes, including voter ID.